1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to substrate material processing equipment and a substrate material processing method using it.
2. Description of the Related Art
In processes for manufacturing liquid crystal display devices, organic EL display devices, and the like, various production lines are provided, such as a substrate material exposure line, an exposed substrate material etching line, an etched substrate material cleaning line, and the like.
Recently, studies have been actively conducted on liquid crystal display devices and organic EL display devices using flexible substrates having high flexibility and impact resistance, such as plastic substrates and metal film substrates, in place of hard substrates, such as glass substrates, silicon wafer substrates, and the like. The flexible substrates having high flexibility cannot hold their shapes by themselves. For this reason, display device manufacturing processes use a roll-to-roll system for conveying a band-shape substrate material with tension applied thereto. In the roll-to-roll system, the substrate material is conveyed in a roll to roll format.
In order to increase manufacturing efficiency, in some cases, the production lines may be operated for simultaneously conveying a flexible substrate material by using the roll-to-roll system.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication 2001-252978 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication 2003-133230 disclose techniques for processing a flexible substrate, such as a plastic substrate, or the like which uses the roll-to-roll system for conveyance.
However, in conveying a flexible substrate material, such as a plastic substrate material, or the like in a roll-to-roll format, the flexible substrate material is conveyed at once on various production lines. For this reason, upon malfunction caused in a processing apparatus in some production line, not only the processing apparatus to be repaired but all the other processing apparatuses must be stopped, thereby lowering manufacturing efficiency. Further, at that time, the flexible substrate material to be processed stays in the production lines so as to cause oxidation of the surfaces thereof, which may adversely influence quality.
For periodical maintenance performed on the processing apparatuses in the production lines, all the processing apparatuses are stopped. For this reason, in view of the line utilization, the processing apparatuses must be subjected to maintenance at once, thereby increasing manpower necessary for maintenance.